The Resurrection Christian School football program is gearing up to begin a new chapter, this one without head coach Rich Yonker.

For the first time since 2009, the Cougars enter the football season with a different man calling shots from the sideline as Mark Roggy, another northern Colorado coaching veteran, steps in to fill Yonker's shoes. Both Roggy and his new squad have spent the entire offseason preparing for their debut together on Friday.

"I'm really excited about the kids I have to work with. That being said I think it remains to be seen what we'll eventually become," Roggy said. "I like the kids' attitudes and how hard they've been working; I think we have some real assets to our team. We're working hard to develop every day and get better."

Roggy brings 22 years of coaching experience at Greeley West to the table for Resurrection Christian. He has implemented his own coaching style that has required the Cougars to shift around the way things get done on the field.

"I think anytime there's a change some kids are unsure, and it's taken them a little bit to get to understand what coach Roggy is looking for," defensive backs coach Bill Scott, the only returning coaching personnel said. "The kids enjoy his enthusiasm and have jumped on board. Kids want to know that you care about them before they care about what you know."

According to the players, the ability to find trust within their new leader proved to be an easier task than originally expected. After spending an entire summer under his wing, many feel as though it is behind them and have already begun looking forward.

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"It was kind of weird, that transition, but going into summer and now into this year it's almost as if we haven't skipped a beat," senior wide receiver Jake Lohr said. "They had two different kind of personalities but their philosophy in football when it comes to hard work and effort is basically all the same."

The Cougars finished the 2012 season with a 5-4 record, missing the postseason by one game. One of the biggest deciding factors for the Cougars not making the 1A playoff cut was being upset by league rival Holyoke in the final seconds of a game they had been leading.

Junior quarterback Luke Mondt recently revisited film from that game, explaining how watching the Dragons return a kickoff in the last five seconds for the upset has left a bad taste in the team's mouth.

"We all lost it in that one game. That's one thing we want to fix is to not allow those little mistakes in the last few minutes that can lose us a game; we have to finish all the way through," Mondt said. "That was one of the games we watched last night, and that was our shot to get to the playoffs."

Now the Cougars are drawing their disappointment line at not reaching the postseason again, as well as setting a personal goal of coming out on top of the North Central League at the conclusion of the regular season.

To do so, they will have to be sharp against league rivals Wray and Wiggins, who are currently ranked, on top of an impressive Fort Lupton team.

"They're definitely powerhouses in our classification," Lohr said. "Right now we know that it is something achievable because we didn't have our best games against them last year and still managed to stay in it."

Looking to do things differently, Resurrection Christian is planning accordingly by training differently. The Cougars are expecting to introduce a new style of play that has been brought over by the coaching staff previously at Loveland.

"You can expect a new, high-tempo offense, as well on the defense," Mondt said. "To the point where there's not going to be a whole lot of breaks, so we're going to have to keep it up-tempo. It's on the defense too where he's going to be sending a lot of people and not giving the quarterback much time to throw the ball or let the running back read and do his cuts."

The Cougars begin their season on Friday at Peyton High School. They return for their first home game the following week against Fort Lupton on Sept. 6.

Resurrection Christian will face the more difficult part of its schedule up front, but according to Roggy they're as ready as they'll ever be.

"You'll need your best game to compete here. If you play your best game, you're going to have the chance to be successful no matter who you play," Roggy said. "Once games start and we get into the season, we're going to find out what we're made of."

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